Welcome to the Awesome Art Room.....

at Langston Hughes! I will use this blog to keep you updated on what all the "art-y smarties" at Langston have been busy exploring and creating.

I am super excited for our big upcoming fundraiser "Original Works". Your child will create an original work of art that you can have reproduced on a variety of items from note cards (adorable!) to plug in night lights! There will be extra packets available in the office, so if you have younger children at home they can participate too. What a fantastic way to commemorate your child's art! I am looking forward to having my daughter Ebi create something for gifts for her grandpa and Nonna. More information about this fundraiser will be sent home to you in the coming weeks and their will be a booth set up at Parent/Teacher conferences with info as well.

Here is what is happening now in the art room:

kdg- Just sent home their Great Horned Owl drawings. This lesson was inspired by a trip to Prairie Park Nature Center. We learned a lot of neat facts about the Great Horned Owl. This project was a chance to review using basic shapes to draw and to introduce texture to the kids.

1st-To finish up a unit on color theory and mixing 1st graders created an aerial map of Lawrence. We viewed some land works by Stan Herd from an aerial view. Students worked in pairs to create one or more square in a large 16 square grid. They were given the three primary colors plus white to paint their squares. From these colors they mixed the secondary colors and tints. The assembled maps are amazing! You wont believe the range of colors created.

2nd- 2nd graders are working on another weaving project. They rolled out slabs to create clay looms. Then they warped them and are now weaving on their looms. This project is always a favorite of the kids and their weavings are amazing. Look for these coming home soon!

3rd - Are creating paintings inspired by Amate Bark Paintings from Mexico. First they compared 4 paintings to find similarities and then will use those similarities in their own works of art. Students are excited to be working with the neon paints for this project.

4th - Got a little "mathalicious" in the art room! They used a compass and straight edge to create a perfect cube. After creating their cubes they added value using oil pastels. You will be amazed at how three dimensional their artworks look after adding value.

5th - Are blowing up snowmen! This is a study in creating interesting compositions and using spatial relations when drawing. They drew a small snowman first. They zoomed in on it using a zoom finder and are enlarging it twelve times its original size (using a grid to keep proportions the same).

6th - are creating designs inpired by Islamic art. Islamic art is non-representational. It is know for its intricate designs using repeated geometric shapes. Students were taught how to create 3 different designs using a compass and straight edge. They were then given the choice of recreating one of those on their own or creating an original design. Look for these on display at parent/teacher conferences.